Former openfields, Slagelse, Sjælland, eastern Denmark
Source: redrawn from J Meeus
The extremely open landscape of wide undulating plains with regular plots of arable land, extending from France to Germany, is called 'openfield'. Several subtypes of openfield are recognised: Atlantic, continental, Aquitaine, former and collective openfields. The complex and often pendulum-like changes which have led to the formation of landscapes found in Europe today, particularly the tension between open and enclosed forms, are well illustrated by the example of the former openfields in Denmark. Former openfields in Denmark In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the original forests of central Jutland (Denmark) were overutilised. Continuous felling, slash-and-burn agriculture, and overgrazing gradually turned the mixed oak woodland into an open landscape with local arable openfields, enclosed pastures, some left-over wooded land, heaths, bogs and fens. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, heaths were ploughed up to feed the growing population, bogs and fens were drained, and roads and farmyards were built in uneven and scattered patterns. Since the land was suitable both for cattle breeding and for arable crops, the landscape was sometimes dominated by meadows and sometimes by cropland. After 1945, central Jutland began losing a large number of hedges; farms grew in size, plots extended, wet grasslands were drained. As a direct result, the landscape came to be characterised by greater uniformity over larger areas. Large numbers of pigs are now reared, making it necessary, for example, to grow more barley. To enable this, permanent grasslands have been ploughed up, while arable land on poor soils is abandoned, reforested or becoming covered in weed (Bernes, 1993). This has resulted in a 'hybrid', semi-open landscape, termed 'former openfields'. Nowadays, wind and water erosion threatens the soil and landscape. To prevent this erosion, each year many kilometres of new hedges are planted and thousands of hectares of evergreen crops are sown. These new hedges and crops are unlikely to restore the former rich wildlife but may enhance the sustainability of the landscape.
Former openfields in Denmark
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the original forests of central Jutland (Denmark) were overutilised. Continuous felling, slash-and-burn agriculture, and overgrazing gradually turned the mixed oak woodland into an open landscape with local arable openfields, enclosed pastures, some left-over wooded land, heaths, bogs and fens. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, heaths were ploughed up to feed the growing population, bogs and fens were drained, and roads and farmyards were built in uneven and scattered patterns. Since the land was suitable both for cattle breeding and for arable crops, the landscape was sometimes dominated by meadows and sometimes by cropland. After 1945, central Jutland began losing a large number of hedges; farms grew in size, plots extended, wet grasslands were drained. As a direct result, the landscape came to be characterised by greater uniformity over larger areas. Large numbers of pigs are now reared, making it necessary, for example, to grow more barley. To enable this, permanent grasslands have been ploughed up, while arable land on poor soils is abandoned, reforested or becoming covered in weed (Bernes, 1993). This has resulted in a 'hybrid', semi-open landscape, termed 'former openfields'. Nowadays, wind and water erosion threatens the soil and landscape. To prevent this erosion, each year many kilometres of new hedges are planted and thousands of hectares of evergreen crops are sown. These new hedges and crops are unlikely to restore the former rich wildlife but may enhance the sustainability of the landscape.